From the Ebony and Jet magazines on the coffee table, to the pictures of Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson on the wall, to the smell of Aunt Bessie’s sweet potato pie emanating from the kitchen, Uncle Bobbie’s was a bastion of unapologetic Blackness.

Although Uncle Bobbie never had access to formal higher education, he was committed to lifelong learning. He read every paper, every magazine, and every book he could get his hands on. Uncle Bobbie used his knowledge to question every aspect of society in hopes of changing it for the better. And he challenged the rest of the family to do the same.

But Uncle Bobbie’s wasn’t all serious. We laughed. We ate. We argued. We gossiped. We laughed more. We were home.

At Uncle Bobbie’s, I began my lifelong love affair with books. At Uncle Bobbie’s, I learned to value my own skin, my own culture, and my own voice. At Uncle Bobbie’s, I was home.

That’s what I want to create here at Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books.

At a moment where people are being divided and neighborhoods are being dismantled, Uncle Bobbie’s is a community space designed for sharing, building, learning, laughing, debating, eating and building.